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BOOM, POW...(It's a smash): Madlab fest heads into last weekend

By: Michael Grossberg

The Columbus Dispatch - May 27, 2011 05:20 AM

It's marathon time at MadLab.
In what's become a caffeine- and adrenalin-fueled annual tradition, MadLab Theatre will end its 12th annual Theatre Roulette festival Saturday May 28 - we're talking all day and night Saturday, just about - with all three rotating repertory bills of new short works.
This year's festival was notable for emphasizing more dramas than the usual comedies. Yet, as my previous Theater Talk reviews of the 10 short plays make clear, there's still quite a lot of amusing comedy among the dramas.
And as usual, too, not all the plays worked as well - whether in the dramatic or comic vein.
But the bottom line is that quite a few did prove entertaining and in some cases, enlightening.

(Caption: Mony Carpenter as Margaret, left to right, Jim Azelvandre as Professor Hart-Meadows, Vicki Andronis as Sylvia, Michael Moore as Bradley from Barbara Lindsay's This Almost Joy, one of the most poignant and memorable plays in MadLab Theatre's Twelfth Annual Theatre Roulette. Credit: Andy Batt)

Thus, whether you haven't seen all the plays yet or have attended all three evenings, Saturday will be a chance to get a last mega-dose of the festival at its comical heights and dramatic depths.

“We definitely chose a lot more dramas this year than we usually do. We received a better selection of dramas than comedies. It’s that simple.”Managing Director Andy Batt said.

Here is a description of the festival's rotating themed bills:

“QUEEN OF HEARTS”
Plays: Mornin’, Daughter Mine; Seldom is Heard; Boom, Pow, OofSchedule: 8 p.m. May 26 and 2 p.m. Saturday May 28
Among the festival’s most serious dramas: Mornin’, Daughter Mine, Tom Deiker’s two-character portrait of a mother (Melissa Bair) who makes a radical proposal to save the life of her suicidal daughter (Hilary Shelton); and Seldom is Heard, Mary Steelsmith’s contemporary piece about difficulties faced by a U.S. veteran (Vince Reese), newly back from combat in Afghanistan, and his wife (Bair.)
“It explores how much we’re willing to sacrifice here on the home front,” said Jennifer Feather Youngblood. She plays Marilyn, president of the neighborhood association, who has the uncomfortable duty of speaking to the wife about a problem.
“Brain-injured and speech-impaired, the husband is disturbing the peace of the neighborhood from his wailing and shouting,” Youngblood said.
Youngblood wrote and directs Boom, Pow, Oof, a 30-minute comedy.
Set at a self-help meeting led by a psychiatrist, the play focuses on five adults who as children had to learn to be powerful without special abilities in a comic-book world of superheroes and supervillains.
“It’s about exploring the uniqueness of the individual,” Youngblood said.
“These five adults, who have siblings or parents who are superheroes, have struggled all their lives with being ordinary.... How powerless it must feel not to be considered extraordinary.”
A lifelong fan of comic books and graphic novels, Youngblood was inspired to write the play when she began to think about the characters and onlookers in the stories’ backgrounds.
“You hear that everyone is the hero of their own story. I wondered how that really works,” she said.
“The super-power stories seem to me to be metaphors for grading people’s levels of worth.”

“ONE-EYED JACKS”
Plays: This Almost Joy, Lolly, The Meeting
Schedule: 8 p.m. Friday May 27; and 4 p.m. Saturday May 28
“Lolly looks like a sweet little romance, but it’s kind of deceptive, with a hint of otherworldliness” director Randi Morgan said.
Barbara (Sarah Brunet) brings her favorite doll to a toy-repair shop to have its eyes replaced in Donald Dewey’s 30-minute drama.
“She wants to give it to her daughter, who believes that the eyes scare her. But we realize that the mother isn’t comfortable giving away a doll that has seen everything in her life,” Morgan said.
“Dewey has a comic flair that masks an underlying pain... His poignant drama is about not wanting to give up childish things. At some point, we all face that.”
Also on the second bill: This Almost Joy, Barbara Lindsay’s poignant and revealing drama about an actor who upsets other characters in a dull play by questioning the nature of reality; and The Meeting, Greg Freier’s slapstick-to-silly comedy about a group of inept corporate executives.

“SUICIDE KINGS”
Plays: Hound Dog and Me, Up on the Roof, Stuck, There is No Good NewsSchedule: 8 p.m. Saturday May 28
The 1994 film Forrest Gump inspired There is No Good News, Quentin James’ 13-minute existential comedy about three men running in the desert in a southwestern state.
“It’s a goofy comedy about faith, trust, letting go and moving forward,” director Nikki Smith said.
“You find out they’re running behind Forrest Gump when he’s running back and forth across the country. They’re blindly trusting a character they dont even know.
“The characters talk about why they’re running... what in their life made them take off and do something completely spontaneous.”
Batt directs Up on the Roof, Mark Harvey Levine’s amusing but predictable playlet about a guy who asks God to give him a sign whether to break up with his girlfriend, and Stuck, Christopher Lockheardt’s expertly staged and performed comic drama about two strangers who get stuck in a revolving door.
“Levine does relationship plays better than anyone,” Batt said. Last fall, the troupe presented Cabfare for the Common Man, an evening of Levine’s short plays.
Batt – the only Madlab member to appear in every annual Roulette festival – also appears in two plays.
He plays Me in Hound Dog and Me, Chris Lane’s 25-minute drama with comic elements about self-sabotage.
“It’s an abstract piece,” Batt said, “about a man who’s in a bad place in his life and how he copes with friendships and his inner demons.”
He plays Jerry in There is No Good News.
“Jerry is looking for something in his life,” Batt said.
“He feels he hasn’t done anything and has let his father down, so he tries to grasp on to anything he can that’s amazing.”
“The play’s central theme is how we constantly search for things to make our lives important. In the process, we miss the simple things in life that are right in front of us.”

IF YOU GO
12th Theatre Roulette
MADLAB THEATRE, 227 N. 3rd St. (614-221-5418, WWW.MADLAB.NET)
SHOWTIMES 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday May 29
TICKETS $12, or $8 for students and senior citizens, $6 for members